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Blog comments do not reflect the views or opinions of the Author or Ancel Glink. Some of the content may be considered attorney advertising material under the applicable rules of certain states. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Please read our full disclaimer

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Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Being a teacher is tough. Between unruly students, angry parents, and
seemingly unceasing budget cuts, teachers have enough to keep them awake at
night. Thankfully, being sued might not be among them. A recent case out of the
Fifth Circuit,Morgan v. Swanson, was a
major victory for teachers and school officials.

In this case, an elementary
school in Texas had an in-school party during the holiday season. A parent and
his son brought candy canes as gifts for the students. The candy canes,
however, had a religious message attached to them. When the school’s principal
saw the religious message, she told the parent and his son that they could not
distribute them. The principal explained that the school had a policy against distributing
materials with religious messages.

The father and son sued the principal, alleging that she had violated
their First Amendment rights. Both the Fifth Circuit and district court dismissed the case, finding that the principal had immunity from the lawsuit because the law regarding this
area of the First Amendment was too complicated for her to know how to handle
religious messages at school parties. The court held that teachers and school
officials are shielded from liability in lawsuits unless their conduct is
“clearly established” as unconstitutional. The court acknowledged that teachers
have a difficult job, and that the courts should not make it more so by
exposing them to liability for doing things that they did not even know were
illegal.

Without a doubt, this case is a victory for school officials. However,
it also begs the question: what conduct is “clearly established” as
unconstitutional? Forcing a student to say the pledge of allegiance would be a
safe bet. But what about issues that are a closer call? What if school
officials allow students to sing a disproportionate number of Christmas songs
at a holiday program? It is difficult to predict exactly, but based on this
holding, it seems as though courts are willing to give teachers the benefit of
the doubt.